Because it's the oldest ballpark in the major leagues and still among the best. Because it's where Babe Ruth pitched, Ted Williams hit, Carlton Fisk danced and Big Papi went yard. Because its Green Monster is the most famous wall outside of China. Because it is such a part of baseball and America that we all have heard the voice that commanded Ray Kinsella to visit it in "Field of Dreams." Because while the Yankees are tearing down their historic stadium, the Red Sox not only opted to keep theirs, they've improved it year by year. Because you can see the influence of its quirky architecture -- its angles, its walls -- in modern ballparks that were built 90 years later. Because it is baseball's official cathedral.

Because a stadium that calls itself a Coliseum better host events worthy of the title -- and it has. Because it has hosted a World Series and the first Super Bowl and two Olympics (top that, Minute Maid Park). Because it has been home to seven Heisman Trophy winners and 11 national champions. Because it has been the site of so many Hollywood endings that everyone from John Wayne (at USC) to Warren Beatty ("Heaven Can Wait") played football here, while Flash Gordon (1932 Olympic gold medalist Buster Crabbe) marched here.

Because Wrigley is baseball's own little Way-Back Machine, a way to step into the past and remember what the game used to be like in our parents' time and our grandparents' time (not counting the beer prices). Because an afternoon in the bleachers is as quintessentially an American experience as a trip to the Grand Canyon or Disneyland. Because it is so stubbornly resists modern convention that there weren't lights until 1988 and there still isn't a replay board. Because if you don't like Wrigley, you might as well renounce your citizenship now.

Because this former Air Force base and NORAD headquarters is now where Olympic athletes train in six gymnasiums, a 45,000-square foot aquatic center, a velodrome, a shooting facility, a research center with a hyperbaric chamber that can simulate training conditions from sea level to 8,000 feet and, for the best ones, a Hall of Fame to honor their performances.

Because few spots so thoroughly combine America's twin love of sports and gambling than the casino where Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield and Sugar Ray Leonard all boxed, and where millions more have gambled billions on games.

Because it has hosted six Super Bowls (more than any other stadium), three BCS championship games and four Final Fours, plus the Sugar Bowl. And because it became a refuge of last resort and a national touchstone during Hurricane Katrina.

Because from here, Sports Illustrated has helped influence sports coverage and opinion, as well as male adolescent fantasies (Cheryl Tiegs in a fishnet) for more than half a century.

23. Soldier Field
Location: Chicago. Opened: 1924. Capacity: 61,500.

Because even though the 2003 remodel ruined the aesthetics, we can still fondly remember it in its previous incarnation where it saw everything from the Dempsey-Tunney "Long Count" fight to the Super Bowl Shuffle.

Because there is no greater signature moment in American sports than dotting the "i" in script Ohio at the Horseshoe, where six Heisman Trophy winners, plus track legend Jesse Owens, have run. (And because if we placed it any further lower than Michigan, there would be hell to pay.)

29. Shea Stadium
Location: Queens. Opened: 1964. Capacity: 57,333.

Because while it might have always played in Yankee Stadium's shadow, this stadium is where Broadway Joe, Tom Terrific and the Fab Four all played (as well as the Yankees in 1974-75). Because, with its dual baseball-football configurations, it helped usher in the multipurpose stadiums of the late '60s and early '70s.

Because as unloved and unappreciated as it is, the Metrodome is the only stadium to ever host a Super Bowl and a World Series and a Final Four. And because no one was complaining about the roof when Jack Morris took the mound for the 10th inning of Game 7 in 1991.

Because it is home to so storied a college basketball program (Wilt Chamberlain and Dean Smith both played at KU) that the only coach to have a losing record for Kansas is the very man who invented the game, James Naismith.

Because this relatively intimate stadium not only is a great place to watch a game, its many perks (plasma screen TVs and internet ports at each locker) has helped raise the bar throughout college football.

Because it's been the site for six Stanley Cup finals, four NBA Finals, two Final Fours, the Christian Laettner shot in the 1992 NCAA East Regional and, unfortunately, the Wing Bowl. And had only "Rocky" actually been filmed here (see No. 73), it would rank even higher.

Because modern sports are still alive (though not necessarily alive and well) at the former site of Metropolitan Stadium, where so many stores sell sports merchandise that Carlos Baerga actually bought an autographed photo of himself here.

Because this stadium is widely credited as the first built with one of the most noxious trends in sports, the personal seat license, in which you have to pay through the nose just for the right to buy an overpriced ticket.

Because no other stadium better represents how important the beer industry is to American sports than the third ballpark in St. Louis named after the country's largest brewer (recently acquired by Belgium's ImBev) -- which spent more than $200 million on sports advertising last year. Or maybe that's just the beer talking.

Because Butler University's historic gym served as the site for not only the climactic game in "Hoosiers," but for the game it was based upon, The Milan Miracle, as well as the lesser known Indiana championship game in which Oscar Robertson's Crispus Attucks team became the first all-black team to win a state title.

Because this is considered the oldest college football stadium in the country, has been the site for the Penn Relays for more than a century and is where one of the most infamous moments in American sports occurred when Philadelphia fans booed and pelted Santa Claus with snowballs.

Because at one time or another, it's been the home of the Lakers, the Clippers, the Bruins, the Trojans, the Kings, Olympic boxing and, most notably, it also was where Rocky lost to Apollo Creed (the Oscar-winning movie was filmed here, not the Spectrum).

Because regardless of what you call it, the prettiest park outside of Yosemite is where Barry went deep (literally) and made history, and because the team paid for it the old-fashioned way -- by itself.

Because a team that gets almost everything else wrong got everything right with this, the finest sports facility in the country. Because it is the perfect blend of architecture and environment. Because if the Pirates ever produce any historic moments here, this baby is going to wind up in the top 10.

Because this is where the cards that your mother wound up throwing away originated (and because in case of nuclear attack, you should make your way here -- the gum will likely be the only food that survives).

Because for years it served as the site for the biggest rivalry in college football -- the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn -- and for many of the biggest games coached by Bear Bryant. And because while Forrest Gump never actually played here, Broadway Joe did.

Because while you might wish you never have to walk into his clinic, if you do, Dr. Frank Jobe, who revolutionized sports medicine, and his staff might just save your career (even if it is just on the company softball team).

Because though one of the country's nicer stadiums was ruined by Mount Davis, this home to four World Series champions, two Super Bowl champs and the Bash Brothers could possibly wind up as the last stadium from the multipurpose era still in use for the NFL and major league baseball.

Because perhaps no facility better represents the unfeeling corporate nature of modern pro sports leagues than this arena, which was rebuilt to the exact specifications of the Sonics in the mid-'90s, only to have the team leave with the full culpability of the NBA barely a decade later because if was deemed somehow inadequate.

Because the site of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest and the Brooklyn Cyclones is also the home of the famous Cyclone roller coaster, while its midway has resulted in more torn rotator cuffs than all professional and amateur baseball leagues combined.

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